We hate these machines.Barney Williams, stroke of the Canadian four who won the silver medal in the Athens Olympics and now a member of the Oxford boat race squad, made this comment during his interview at the end of his race at the AXA PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship. The We is a reference to oarsmen in general and the fact that, amongst the competitors at BIRC, oarsmen were in the minority tends to support this view. In an event that was originally designed to provide a focal point for oarsmen during the winter, and has been so successful in attracting non-rowers, why is it that oarsmen tend to avoid indoor rowing competitions?Rowing itself is considered a minority sport but if you consider all sports and activities that involve water then it takes on a different perspective. Rowing, canoeing, sailing and swimming are just a few of the sports that involve water. When you add the number of people that take their holidays at seaside resorts, visit lake areas or cruise the oceans then water has a very strong attraction to us humans. There is a great deal of pleasure gained from sailing or rowing over water, swimming in it or just sitting beside it that can be recognised by most people. Competitive rowing over water requires great physical effort and oarsmen are prepared to make this effort within the medium of moving over water. Remove that satisfying feeling of moving a craft across water and just being left with the effort is far less attractive.This is understandable especially if you view rowing as a summer sport, rowing on warm summer days on calm lakes. But this is the tip of the iceberg; the preparation to support this is hours and hours of training in the freezing cold and dark winter mornings. Snow and rain doesn't stop them boating, the only conditions that you cannot row in is when the water is actually frozen or fog.The rowing machine was developed to ease the suffering of training during conditions like this and you would think it would be viewed as a godsend to oarsmen. Of course they do use them extensively but they would still rather be out on the water. Oarsmen want to row in boats but they will train on the machine when this is not possible. In a perverted logic, some oarsmen equate training on the machine as stopping them doing what they would prefer whereas the reality is it's the weather that is stopping them doing what they want to do while the machine is ensuring there is no associated loss of condition.Still a number of oarsmen do take part in BIRC. The rowing machine is used extensively as a means of assessing current fitness levels. Through the ranking system it provides a unique opportunity to measure your performance directly against colleagues and competitors alike. But at the end of the day BIRC is about testing yourself against your own limits of physical endurance. Tests like these will always be painful experiences because the machine has no limits and you do. There are no advantages to the athlete, no winning the toss, no lucky goals no playing with the wind behind your back. Your performance is down to you and you alone, no mitigating circumstances, not luck or a dodgy ref. For some people this harsh reality is too hard to face.